It was notorious bank robber Willie Sutton who apparently said that he robbed banks because,”That’s where the money is.”

And in Wells Fargo’s cross-selling gotta-get-as-many-assets-and rack-up-as-many-fees-as-possible case, I think it’s fair to say that it’s banks that rob their customers for the very same reason: Because that’s where the money is.

So bank customers BEWARE. In this time of way-too-big-to-be- helpful banking, be ultra careful where you bank.

Make sure to keep on top of all of your bank accounts checking balances and activity in each frequently no matter which institution(s) you bank with.

When it comes to money, nothing is more important than knowing where it is and how it’s being handled.

Stock investing can be really risky. Right, Mr. Trump?

Without getting into all of the details, in the mid-1990s, Donald Trump had a company that traded on the New York Stock Exchange with the stock symbol of “DJT”, according to CNNMONEY.com.

And, according to that same source, if you had invested 100 bucks into DJT in 1995, five years later you’d be left with $8.72. That’s a loss of 90%.

While you, Mr. or Ms. Investor, were left with pennies, DJT paid Trump $39 million in salary, bonuses, options and other compensations during that same time period.

Market Quick Glance

Friday marked the end of a week, the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the last quarter of 2016.

As you might expect, the week’s performance numbers were different from the previous week’s.

Below are where the weekly and 1-year performance results for four popular stock indices stood at the close of business on Friday, Sept 30, 2016, according to Bloomberg,

-Indices:

-Dow Jones +7.22% YTD up from 6.94% YTD

1yr Rtn +14.13% down from 14.96%

-S&P 500 +7.85% YTD up from 63% YTD

1yr Rtn +13.56% down from 14.57%

–NASDAQ +7.18$ YTD up from 7.01% YTD

1yr Rtn +14.38% down from 14.76%

–Russell 2000 +11.45% YTD down from 11.64% YTD

1yr Rtn +14.05% up from 13.45%

-Mutual funds

Year-to-date average returns for U.S. Diversified Equity funds changed direction during the week.

At the close of business on Thursday, September 29, 2016, their average YTD return was 5.51%, according to Lipper. Last week the figure was 6.79%.

Comparing last week’s fund category results with this week’s, here’s how the numbers look:

-Equity Leverage Funds had a YTD performance average of +20.84%—that’s down from last week’s number of +25.27%.

-Dedicated Short Bias Funds, had an average YTD average return of -21.62%. That’s an improvement from last week’s -23.26%.

-Precious Metals Equity Funds are now up 99.99% on average. That’s down a hunk from last week’s performance average of +107.93%.

-Under the broad heading of World Equity Funds, Lipper tracks 4,429 of them, their average return is+6.41%. That’s down from last week’s average of +7.74%.

-Latin American Funds continue to beat that broad heading and have an average YTD total return of 32.31%. That’s also down from last week’s average of 35.19%.

Make sure to take advantage of the wonderful world of mutual fund performance figures Lipper makes publishes. Use their YTD returns as a guideline for how your individual fund(s) are performing. For instance, Lipper reports the average stock fund is up about 6.79 percent so far this year. Are your stock funds doing better or worse than that?

Visit www.allaboutfunds.com for weekly updates to see how various equity and fixed-income funds have rewarded investors over the short-and long-term, based upon Lipper data. Short-term meaning weekly and monthly performance returns; longer-term includes quarterly, year-to-date, 1-yr, 2-yr, 3-yr and 5-yr returns.

Lipper’s weekly performance figures for stock and fixed-income funds are at www.allaboutfunds.com in the left column on the home page.